Goldies Extra: Veronica De Jesus scoresBy Brandon Bussolini
Veronica De Jesus, It's a Battle, pen and marker on watercolor paper, 9" x 12", 2008
Sports and business figure heavily in the drawings of Veronica De Jesus. Her art doesn't have the broad shoulders or spectacles of an ex-jock like Matthew Barney, but the biggest pieces in De Jesus' recent solo show at Michael Rosenthal, "Do The Waive," were of sports players, and smaller drawings incorporate hand-drawn, hurt-looking corporate logos. Awkwardly caught mid-evasion, the extra leg on the football player captured in Breadwinner is a happy accident that makes the drawing equal parts action shot and portrait. San Francisco artist Colter Jacobsen shares De Jesus' attraction to drawing and memory, though the two have very distinct styles. When I ask him via e-mail what he takes away from his friend's art, he replies that in De Jesus's work, “there is really no erasure to a mark, even a mess-up, all the lines are additive."
Veronica De Jesus, Breadwinner, watercolor, ink, conte on paper, 72" x 36", 2008
There's an element of earnest fandom in De Jesus's sports drawings, as she grew up "boy style" with her brother and father, watching sports and playing pick-up basketball. But she began using the theme in her art “as a way to begin a discussion about money, power, and popularity, things that also exist for the purposes of inspiration — about how we want a platform to applaud and celebrate actions we cannot ourselves do.” The extra leg of the athlete in Breadwinner sticks out in part because it establishes the drawing as a performance, one that the artist chooses not to make seamless.
Veronica De Jesus, All Hugs, pen and marker on watercolor paper, 9" x 12", 2008
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